25 of Our Favorite Go-To Summer Recipes

More from this Slideshow

When you first think of baking, your mind probably doesn’t jump to needing salt as an ingredient, but Kathleen King of Tate’s Bake Shop encourages that it should. When baking chocolate chip cookies, she always uses salted butter instead of unsalted because its savory components are the perfect balance to the sweetness of the chocolate and sugar.

While several minutes are needed to whip up a batch of whipped cream — they are not for cookie dough. For the perfect crisp and chewy cookie, King says to make sure not to overmix the dough because it’ll make the cookie cakey. Her rule of thumb is to stop mixing when the flour is just combined.

Instead of worrying about over- or underbaking some of your cookies, be exact with your measurements to ensure you’re evenly baking them. King likes to use a 2-tablespoon ice cream scoop to drop her cookies onto a baking sheet.

If you’re reusing baking sheets for each batch of cookies you’re working on, King strongly warns to make sure the baking sheets cool down completely before scooping out another batch of cookies. If the pan is too hot from the previous batch, it’ll cause the dough to begin to melt before it goes into the oven, resulting in flat and lifeless cookies.

Age and type of an oven can vary, and so the quality of our cookies can sometimes suffer when the bottoms begin to brown faster than the tops do. King suggests stacking your baking sheet on top of another one to ensure perfect cooking. By doing this, you’re insulating the top sheet so that your cookies bake at a slower rate.

"This is one for those of you that appreciate thick, soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies. I love to eat them warm, when the chips are still melted. See my instructions for freezing the dough — I am never without ready-to-bake frozen balls of 'Chubbies' dough for a just-baked treat." — Kathleen King, baker and owner of Tate’s Bake Shop Click here to see the recipe.